Weekly Round Up Podcast #102: Pepsi’s controversial ad, LG G6 & more

Welcome to Weekly Roundup, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation and news from the last few days.

This week, Hadlee Simons hosts Andy Walker and Matthew Alexander in studio.

The trio opens the floor with the newly launched LG G6, the Korean company’s latest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy fighter. Hadlee speaks about the launch, the device’s prospects, and the launch price in South Africa.

The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus also receive shout outs, thanks to local launch price and availability information. The team chats about the two devices and their potential success in the country.

Pepsi was forced to pull its advertisement starring Kendall Jenner after global social media backlash

Moving to Memeburn, a programmatic banking system called Root receives some talk time. Developed by Standard Bank and OfferZen, the service will aim to give geeks more power over how they spend their money, and how they monitor said spend.

Kendall Jenner and Pepsi are also in the spotlight this week, after both made social media headlines for all the wrong reasons (hint: it had something to do with a viral advertisement).

And finally, the team talks startups and the low percentage founded by immigrants in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Compared to the likes of Silicon Valley, these numbers are a big surprise.

What are we watching, reading, playing: Matthew had a number of reviews hitting Gearburn this week, including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Mass Effect: Andromeda. He’s also watching Rick and Morty, and playing his latest review title — Persona 5.

Andy is reviewing Hisense’s latest device — the C30 Rock. He’s also lining up gameplay of the PlayStation 4’s latest exclusive Drawn to Death, and is enjoying episodes from the podcast series Intelligence Squared. He found the latest episode exploring social media’s relationship to art particularly interesting.

Finally, Hadlee is still playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild on Nintendo Switch. He’s also reviewing the LG G6.

For all this and more, have a listen to the podcast below. Also, be sure to catch the thorough Recommended Reading list at the foot of this article.

Recommended Reading:

• Root is Standard Bank, OfferZen’s new ‘programmable’ bank account
• Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad has gone viral for all the wrong reasons
• LG G6 gets priced for SA, slightly cheaper than S8
• Huawei P10, P10 Plus to hit SA next month, pricing in tow
• Close to fifth of Joburg, Cape Town startup founders are immigrants

Additional Reading:

• Intelligence Squared Podcast: Social media is killing art
• Gearburn’s The Legend of Zelda: Breathe of the Wild review diary
• Gearburn’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands: hands on preview